MULTIPHASE FLOW METERING: 4 YEARS ON

Since the authors’ last review in 2001 [1], the use of Multiphase Flow Metering (MFM) within the oil and gas industry continues to grow a pace, being more popular in some parts of the world than others. Since the early 1990's, when the first commercial meters started to appear, there have been more than 1,600 field applications of MFM for field allocation, production optimisation and well testing. As the authors predicted, wet gas metering technology has improved to such an extent that its use has rapidly increased worldwide. A “who’s who” of the MFM sector is provided, which highlights the mergers in the sector and gives an insight into the meters and measurement principles available today. Cost estimates, potential benefits and reliability in the field of the current MFM technologies are revisited and brought up to date. Several measurements technologies have resurfaced, such as passive acoustic energy patterns, infrared wavelengths, Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR) and Electrical Capacitance Tomography (ECT), and they are becoming commercial. The concept of “virtual metering”, integrated with “classical MFM”, is now widely accepted. However, sometimes the principles of the MFM measurements themselves are forgotten, submerged in the sales and marketing hype.